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The day Pete Carroll got locked out and sent home when Julio was down by the schoolyard

By Matt Bonesteel, The Washington Post

Updated:
07/10/2017 02:58:08 PM EDT

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones was one of the most coveted prep recruits in the country back in 2007 and 2008 and, considering he went to high school in Alabama, just about everyone there wanted him to play for Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.

So when an interloper such as then-USC coach Pete Carroll started sniffing around, extreme lengths were taken to keep Jones out of view.

Rob Buska of NBC Sports Radio relayed one such tale on "Pro Football Talk Live" earlier this week.

"We loved Julio so much, and he went to this high school in the middle of nowhere, in the sticks there in Alabama," Buska said Carroll told him. "We flew in to see him, and once we got out of the car, at the football field, during the middle of practice, coach saw me and knew who I was.

"He took Jones off the field, ran him inside, got the principal and the athletic director, and locked the school."

All that's missing from this tale is the coach repeatedly shouting "Roll Tide" at Carroll while giving him the finger.

Carroll was not allowed inside the school and Jones was soon on his way to Alabama, where he was named SEC freshman of the year in 2008 and then helped lead the Crimson Tide to the 2009 BCS championship.

"Got Nick Saban at Alabama on the phone right away, and said, 'Hey, Pete Carroll's outside.' Next thing you know, there's your full scholarship right there," Buska said Carroll told him.

At the time, Saban was just getting started at an Alabama program that was still emerging, so he could have probably used the help in keeping the top in-state talent at home.

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Now he has four national titles in Tuscaloosa and needs no such shenanigans, though that hasn't stopped him from going overboard. After all, this is a guy who once sent a recruit 105 nonidentical letters in a single day.

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